Veterans Day a time to honor

We celebrate the news this year that our troops will be coming home from Iraq by the end of the year. It is a long time coming.

There are nearly 22 million living American military veterans and we owe each of them big time. And on Veterans Day 2011, we honor them all.

We salute their bravery, their valor, their patriotism and we do so ever mindful that many have given what cannot be repaid by the most heartfelt ceremony.

An astonishing 2.1 million men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We should celebrate peace and not war this year.

“We must never resign ourselves to the absence of peace,” Pope Benedict XVI said last year in a homily. “Peace is possible. Peace is urgent. Peace is an indispensable condition for a life worthy of the human person and society.”

The purpose of Veterans Day remains the same as when President Woodrow Wilson issued the declaration for the observance. He said the day should “be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations...”

In the last several years, the efforts have included the contribution of tens of thousands of dollars to Honor Flight to fly hundreds of World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to see their war memorial. Many local veterans have participated and told wonderful stories about their trips.

In observance of Veterans Day there are events planned locally.

The annual Veterans Day observance at the Beaufort National Cemetery will feature a former Marine who served in the Iraq War and a female general.

The parade starts at 9:30 a.m. on Rogers Street and follows the customary route of Boundary, Carteret, Bay and Bladen streets. The ceremony starts at 11 a.m. at the Beaufort National Cemetery, 1601 Boundary St.

And there’s an event at 10 a.m. at Sun City in the Pinckney Hall parking lot. Get there early as event organizers are expecting more than 1,000 people.

Veterans Day is an important day to remember. Without our veterans, we would not enjoy the freedoms we do today.